Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972) Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

 Title: Godzilla vs. Gigan
Year: 1972
Director: Jun Fukuda
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese

The Godzilla series had a reputation for being cheap, but actually it was pretty expensive for Japanese studio Toho to produce. Even with all the obvious shortcuts involved--such as only building them to be viewed from certain angles--those model cities required a lot of construction and attention to detail. They would be destroyed during production and have to be remade again and again. The Godzilla and accompanying monster suits cost a lot of money as well. 

In this entry a man begins to suspect that something is wrong about his employers; meanwhile, Godzilla and Anguirus are alerted to something strange going on. 

By this time the public's interest in Godzilla was beginning to decrease. Toho feared that they would lose money from the property and therefore cranked out picture after picture, giving each one a smaller budget. The Director  Jun Fukuda envisioned the film as a return to a "traditional" Godzilla entry, where Godzilla would thwart an alien invasion. Toho's producer thought the previous entry Godzilla vs. Smoke Monster was an abomination & likened the director's thinking. 

Throughout the film we see a LOT of stock footage, so much that it disorients the viewer and makes us wonder if there are three different Godzilla's being shown to them (the monster varies in height, weight, skin colour). Compared to genuine classics like the original film or Mothra vs. Godzilla, this film is a bit of a mess.The story is very obviously aimed at children, which is why the plot makes little logical sense, and there isn't much of a message at all unlike previous entries.

Godzilla vs. Gigan is a bad film, but it does border on "so bad it's entertaining". Anyone viewing it with a critical eye is unlikely to believe that Godzilla can be serious cinema, which is a shame. Where it does deliver is on the monsters, ooohhh there are so many monsters!